The Belizean–Guatemalan territorial dispute is an unresolved binational territorial dispute between the states of Belize and Guatemala, neighbours in Central America. The territory of Belize has been claimed in whole or in part by Guatemala since 1821.

The present dispute originates with imperial Spain's claim to all New World territories west of the line established in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. England, like other powers of the late 15th century, did not recognize the treaty that divided the world between Spain and Portugal. After Mayan Indian tribes had massacred Spanish conquistadors and missionaries in Tipu and surrounding areas, shipwrecked English seamen, then English and Scottish Baymen, settled by 1638, making their presence permanent by 1779, with a short military alliance with Amerindians from the Mosquito Coast south of Belize, and often welcoming former British privateers.[1]

In the Godolphin Treaty of 1670, Spain confirmed England was to hold all territories in the Western Hemisphere that it had already settled; however, the treaty did not define what areas were settled, and despite the historic evidence that England occupied Belize when they signed the Godolphin Treaty, Spain later used this vagueness to maintain its claim on the entirety of Belize.[1] Meanwhile, by the 18th century, the Baymen and Mayans increasingly became enemies, as the Mayans reverted to their traditional hostility to foreign settlers, although they continued to sell slaves to the Baymen.

Without recognition of either the British or Spanish governments, the Baymen in Belize started electing magistrates as early as 1738.[1] After the Treaty of Paris and with the following conditions re-affirmed in the 1783 Treaty of Versailles, Britain agreed to abandon British forts in Belize that protected the Baymen and give Spain sovereignty over the soil, while Spain agreed the Baymen could continue logging wood in present-day Belize. However, the Baymen agreed to none of this, and after the 1783 Treaty of Versailles, the governor of British-controlled Jamaica sent a superintendent to control the settlers, but had his authority denied by the farmers and loggers.[1]

When Spain attempted to eject them and seize their land and wealth, the Baymen revolted. Spain's last military attempt to dislodge the rebellious settlers was the 1798 Battle of St. George's Caye, which ended with Spain failing to re-take the territory. The Baymen never asked for nor received a formal treaty with Spain after this, and the UK was only able to gain partial control of the settlers by 1816; British people continued operating their own local government without permission from either imperial power, though the British tacitly accepted the situation. This lasted until they joined the British Empire in 1862.[1] The territorial dispute's origins lay in the 18th-century treaties in which Great Britain acceded to Spain's assertion of sovereignty while British settlers continued to occupy the sparsely settled and ill-defined area. The 1786 Convention of London, which affirmed Spanish sovereignty was never renegotiated, but Spain never attempted to reclaim the area after 1798. Subsequent treaties between Britain and Spain failed to mention the British settlement. By the time Spain lost control of Mexico and Central America in 1821, Britain had extended its control over the area, albeit informally and unsystematically. By the 1830s, Britain regarded the entire territory between the Hondo River and Sarstoon River as British.[1]

The independent republics that emerged from the disintegrating Spanish Empire in the 1820s claimed that they had inherited Spain's sovereign rights in the area. The UK, however, never accepted such a doctrine. Based on this doctrine of inheritance, Mexico and Guatemala asserted claims to Belize. Mexico once claimed the portion of British Honduras north of the Sibun River but dropped the claim in a treaty with Britain in 1893. Since then, Mexico has stated that it would revive the claim only if Guatemala were successful in obtaining all or part of the nation. Still, Mexico was the first nation to recognise Belize as an independent country.[1]

Guatemala declared its independence from Spain in 1821, and Great Britain did not accept the Baymen of what is now Belize as a crown colony until 1862, 64 years after the Baymen's last hostilities with Spain. This crown colony became known as "British Honduras".

Under the terms of the Wyke–Aycinena Treaty of 1859, Guatemala agreed to recognize British Honduras, and Great Britain promised to build a road from Guatemala to the nearby Baymen town of Punta Gorda. This treaty was approved by General Rafael Carrera ("supreme and perpetual leader" of Guatemala), and Queen Victoria of Great Britain without regard to the Maya peoples living there. In 1940, Guatemala claimed that the 1859 treaty was void because the British failed to comply with economic assistance provisions found in Clause VII of the Treaty. Belize, once independent, claimed this was not a treaty they were bound by since they did not sign it. Belize further argued that International Court of Justice rulings[2][3][4] and principles of international law, such as uti possidetis juris and the right of nations to self-determination, demand that Guatemala honour the boundaries in the 1859 treaty even if Great Britain never built the road as promised.

At the centre of Guatemala's oldest claim was the 1859 treaty between the United Kingdom and Guatemala. From Britain's viewpoint, this treaty merely settled the boundaries of an area already under British dominion. Today's independent Belize government holds the viewpoint that treaties signed by the UK are not binding on them, that the International Court of Justice's precedent is that the 1859 treaty is binding on Guatemala unless Guatemala can firmly prove the 1859 treaty was forced upon them by the UK, that international law says any breaches in the 1859 treaty by the UK would not excuse Guatemala's breaches and the UK never made "material breaches",[5] that Guatemala never inherited Spain's claim because Guatemala never occupied that part of Spain's New World colonies, and the right of a people to self-determination.[6]

Guatemala, in opposition to both the UK and Belize positions, has an older view that this agreement was a treaty of cession through which Guatemala would give up its territorial claims only under certain conditions, including the construction of a road from Guatemala to the Caribbean coast. The UK never built the road, and Guatemala said it would repudiate the treaty in 1884 but never followed up on the threat.

The dispute appeared to have been forgotten until the 1930s, when the government of General Jorge Ubico claimed that the treaty was invalid because the road had not been constructed. Britain argued that because neither the short-lived Central American Federation (1821–39) nor Guatemala had ever exercised any authority in the area or even protested the British presence in the 19th century, British Honduras was clearly under British sovereignty. In its constitution of 1945, however, Guatemala stated that British Honduras was the twenty-third department of Guatemala (Guatemala's newest claim on Belize in 1999, however, makes no mention of the 1859 treaty, instead relying on Anglo-Spanish treaties of the 18th century).

In February 1948, Guatemala threatened to invade and forcibly annex the territory, and the British responded by deploying two companies from 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment. One company deployed to the border and found no signs of any Guatemalan incursion, but the British decided to permanently station a company in Belize City. Since 1954 a succession of military and right-wing governments in Guatemala frequently whipped up nationalist sentiment, generally to divert attention from domestic problems. Guatemala also periodically massed troops on the border with the country in a threatening posture. In 1957, responding to a Guatemalan threat to invade, a company of the Worcesteshire Regiment was deployed, staying briefly and carrying out jungle training before leaving. On 21 January 1958, a force of pro-Guatemalan fighters from the Belize Liberation Army, who had likely been aided and encouraged by Guatemala, crossed the border and raised the Guatemalan flag. A British platoon was then deployed and exchanged fire with them, before arresting some 20 fighters.[1][7]

Negotiations between Britain and Guatemala began again in 1961, but the elected representatives of British Honduras had no voice in these talks. George Price refused an invitation from Guatemalan President Ydígoras Fuentes to make British Honduras an "associated state" of Guatemala. Price reiterated his goal of leading the colony to independence. In 1963 Guatemala broke off talks and ended diplomatic relations with Britain. In 1965 Britain and Guatemala agreed to have an American lawyer, appointed by United States President Lyndon Johnson, mediate the dispute. The lawyer's draft treaty proposed giving Guatemala so much control over the newly independent country, including internal security, defence, and external affairs, that Belize would have become more dependent on Guatemala than it was already on Britain. The United States supported the proposals. All parties in British Honduras, however, denounced the proposals, and Price seized the initiative by demanding independence from Britain with appropriate defence guarantees.[1]

A series of meetings, begun in 1969, ended abruptly in 1972 when Britain - in response to intelligence suggesting an imminent Guatemalan invasion [8] - announced it was sending an aircraft carrier and 8,000 troops to Belize to conduct amphibious exercises. Guatemala then massed troops on the border. Talks resumed between 1973, but broke off in 1975 when tensions flared. Guatemala began massing troops on the border, and Britain responded by deploying troops, along with a battery of 105mm field guns, anti-aircraft missile units, six fighter jets, and a frigate. Following this deployment, tensions were defused, largely as a result of many Guatemalan soldiers deserting and returning to their homes.[7]

At this point, the Belizean and British governments, frustrated at dealing with the military-dominated regimes in Guatemala, agreed on a new strategy that would take the case for self-determination to various international forums. The Belize government felt that by gaining international support, it could strengthen its position, weaken Guatemala's claims, and make it harder for Britain to make any concessions.[1]

Belize argued that Guatemala frustrated the country's legitimate aspirations to independence and that Guatemala was pushing an irrelevant claim and disguising its own colonial ambitions by trying to present the dispute as an effort to recover territory lost to a colonial power. Between 1975 and 1981, Belizean leaders stated their case for self-determination at a meeting of the heads of Commonwealth of Nations governments in Jamaica, the conference of ministers of the Nonaligned Movement in Peru, and at meetings of the United Nations (UN). The support of the Nonaligned Movement proved crucial and assured success at the UN.[1] Latin American governments initially supported Guatemala. Cuba, however, was the first Latin country, in December 1975, to support Belize in a UN vote that affirmed Belize's right to self-determination, independence, and territorial integrity. The outgoing Mexican president, Luis Echeverría, indicated that Mexico would appeal to the Security Council to prevent Guatemala's designs on Belize from threatening peace in the area. In 1977, Guatemala made further moves against Belize, but was deterred from invading, especially since British fighter jets had by then been permanently stationed there. From 1977 onward, the border was constantly patrolled and observation posts to monitor key points.[7] 1976 Head of government Omar Torrijos of Panama began campaigning for Belize's cause, and in 1979 the Sandinista government in Nicaragua declared unequivocal support for an independent Belize.[1]

In each of the annual votes on this issue in the UN, the United States abstained, thereby giving the Guatemalan government some hope that it would retain United States backing. Finally, in November 1980, with Guatemala completely isolated, the UN passed a resolution that demanded the independence of Belize, with all its territory intact, before the next session of the UN in 1981. The UN called on Britain to continue defending the new nation of Belize. It also called on all member countries to offer their assistance.[1]

A last attempt was made to reach an agreement with Guatemala prior to the independence of Belize. The Belizean representatives to the talks made no concessions, and a proposal, called the Heads of Agreement, was initialled on 11 March 1981. Although the Heads of Agreement would have given only partial control and access to assets in each other's nations, it collapsed when Guatemala renewed its claims to Belize soil and Belizeans rioted against the British and their own government, claiming the Belizean negotiators were making too many concessions to Guatemala. When far-right political forces in Guatemala labelled the proposals as a sell-out, the Guatemalan government refused to ratify the agreement and withdrew from the negotiations. Meanwhile, the opposition in Belize engaged in violent demonstrations against the Heads of Agreement. The demonstrations resulted in four deaths, many injuries, and damage to the property of the People's United Party leaders and their families. A state of emergency was declared. However, the opposition could offer no real alternatives. With the prospect of independence celebrations in the offing, the opposition's morale fell. Independence came to Belize on 21 September 1981, without reaching an agreement with Guatemala.[1]

Significant negotiations between Belize and Guatemala, with the United Kingdom as an observer, resumed in 1988. Guatemala recognised Belize's independence in 1991 and diplomatic relations were established.

Britain continued to maintain British Forces Belize to protect the country from Guatemala, consisting of an army battalion and No. 1417 Flight RAF of Harrier fighter jets. The British also trained and strengthened the newly formed Belize Defence Force. There was a serious fear of a Guatemalan invasion in April 1982, when it was thought that Guatemala might take advantage of the Falklands War to invade, but these fears never materialised. In 1994, three years after Guatemala recognised Belizean independence, British Forces Belize was disbanded and most British troops left Belize, but the British maintained a training presence via the British Army Training and Support Unit Belize and 25 Flight AAC until 2011, when the last British forces, except for seconded advisers, left Belize.[7][9]

On 19 October 1999, Said Musa, the Prime Minister of Belize, was made aware that Guatemala wanted to renew its claim. As a new line of reasoning for their claim (instead of basing it on the 1859 treaty), Guatemala asserted that it had inherited Spain's 1494 and 18th century claims on Belize and was owed more than half of Belize's land mass, from the Sibun River south.[10] This claim amounts to 12,272 km2 (4,738 sq mi) of territory, or roughly 53% of the country. The claim includes significant portions of the current Belizean Cayo and Belize Districts, as well as all of the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts, well to the north of the internationally accepted border along the Sarstoon River.[11] The majority of Belizeans are strongly opposed to becoming part of Guatemala.

The Guatemalan military placed personnel at the edge of the internationally recognised border. Belizean patrols incorporating Belize Defence Force members and police forces took up positions on their side of the border.[12]

In June 2008, Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow said resolving the dispute was his main political goal. He proposed referenda for the citizens of Belize and Guatemala, asking whether they support referring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).[13] An agreement on submitting the issue to the ICJ was signed on 8 December 2008, with a referendum to be held on the issue simultaneously in Belize and Guatemala on 6 October 2013, but it was suspended.[14]

In May 2015, Belize allowed Guatemala to proceed with a referendum asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to definitively rule on the dispute although Belize by its own admission is not ready for such a vote. A previous treaty between the two countries stipulated that any such vote must be held simultaneously. Guatemala was initially expected to hold its referendum on the issue during its second round of presidential elections in October 2015, but such a vote was not on the ballot.[15] Belize has yet to announce its vote on the matter.[16]

Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales has made statements strongly in support of Guatemala's longstanding territorial claim to Belize, saying, "Something is happening right now, we are about to lose Belize. We have not lost it yet. We still have the possibility of going to the International Court of Justice where we can fight that territory or part of that territory."[15]

^"Territorial Dispute (Libyun Aruh Jamuhiriyu/Chad)"(PDF), I.C.J. Reports 1994 (Judgment): 37, Once agreed, the boundary stands, for any other approach would vitiate the fundamental principle of the stability of boundaries, the importance of which has been repeatedly emphasized by the Court (Temple of Preuh Viheur, I.C.J. Reports 1962, p. 34; Aegean Sea Continental Shelf: I.C.J. Reports 1978, p. 36).

^"Territorial Dispute (Libyun Aruh Jamuhiriyu/Chad)"(PDF), I.C.J. Reports 1994 (Judgment): 37, A boundary established by treaty thus achieves a permanence which the treaty itself does not necessarily enjoy. The treaty can cease to be in force without in any way affecting the continuance of the boundary.

^"Frontier Dispute"(PDF), I.C.J. Reports 1986 (Judgment): 568, By becoming independent, a new State acquires sovereignty with the territorial base and boundaries left to it by the colonial power. This is part of the ordinary operation of the machinery of State succession. International law - and consequently the principle of uti possidetis - applies to the new State (as a State) not with retroactive effect, but immediately and from that moment onwards.

1.
Belize
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Belize, formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala and its mainland is about 290 km long and 110 km wide. Belize has an area of 22,800 square kilometres and a population of 368,310 and it has the lowest population density in Central America. The countrys population growth rate of 1. 87% per year is the second highest in the region, Belizes abundance of terrestrial and marine species and its diversity of ecosystems gives it a key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Belize has a society, composed of many cultures and languages that reflect its rich history. English is the language of Belize, with Belizean Kriol being the unofficial language. Over half the population is multilingual, with Spanish being the second most common spoken language, Belize is considered a Central American and Caribbean nation with strong ties to both the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Belize is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, Belize is known for its September Celebrations, its extensive coral reefs, and punta music. The origin of the name Belize remains unclear, the earliest known record of the name appears in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded the names of three rivers that he crossed while travelling north along the Caribbean coast, Rio Soyte, Rio Xibum. The names of these waterways, which correspond to the Sittee River, Sibun River and it is likely that Delgados Balis was actually the Mayan word belix, meaning muddy-watered. Others have suggested that the name derives from a Spanish pronunciation of the name of the Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace, there is no proof that Wallace settled in this area and some scholars have characterized this claim as a myth. Writers and historians have suggested other possible etymologies, including postulated French. Many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination, prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages, they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture, between about 2500 BC and 250 AD, the basic institutions of Maya civilisation emerged. The peak of this occurred during the classic period, which began about 250 AD. The Maya civilisation spread across what is now Belize around 1500 BC, the recorded history of the middle and southern regions is dominated by Caracol, an urban political centre that may have supported over 140,000 people. North of the Maya Mountains, the most important political centre was Lamanai, in the late Classic Era of Maya civilisation, as many as 1 million people may have lived in the area that is now Belize

2.
Guatemala
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With an estimated population of around 15.8 million, it is the most populated state in Central America. Guatemala is a democracy, its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción. The territory of modern Guatemala once formed the core of the Maya civilization, most of the country was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century, becoming part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Guatemala attained independence in 1821 as part of the Federal Republic of Central America, from the mid to late 19th century, Guatemala experienced chronic instability and civil strife. Beginning in the early 20th century, it was ruled by a series of dictators backed by the United Fruit Company, in 1944, authoritarian leader Jorge Ubico was overthrown by a pro-democratic military coup, initiating a decade-long revolution that led to sweeping social and economic reforms. A U. S. -backed military coup in 1954 ended the revolution, from 1960 to 1996, Guatemala endured a bloody civil war fought between the US-backed government and leftist rebels, including genocidal massacres of the Maya population perpetrated by the military. As of 2014, Guatemala ranks 31st of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries in terms of the Human Development Index, Guatemalas abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems includes a large number of endemic species and contributes to Mesoamericas designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The country is known for its rich and distinct culture. The name Guatemala comes from the Nahuatl word Cuauhtēmallān, or place of many trees and this was the name the Tlaxcaltecan soldiers who accompanied Pedro de Alvarado during the Spanish Conquest gave to this territory. The first evidence of habitation in Guatemala dates back to 12,000 BC. Evidence, such as obsidian arrowheads found in parts of the country. There is archaeological proof that early Guatemalan settlers were hunters and gatherers, pollen samples from Petén and the Pacific coast indicate that maize cultivation had been developed by 3500 BC. Sites dating back to 6500 BC have been found in the Quiché region in the Highlands, archaeologists divide the pre-Columbian history of Mesoamerica into the Preclassic period, the Classic period, and the Postclassic period. Until recently, the Preclassic was regarded as a period, with small villages of farmers who lived in huts. This period is characterized by urbanisation, the emergence of independent city-states and this lasted until approximately 900 AD, when the Classic Maya civilization collapsed. The Maya abandoned many of the cities of the lowlands or were killed off by a drought-induced famine. The cause of the collapse is debated, but the Drought Theory is gaining currency, supported by such as lakebeds, ancient pollen. A series of prolonged droughts, among other such as overpopulation, in what is otherwise a seasonal desert is thought to have decimated the Maya

3.
Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The combined population of Central America is between 41,739,000 and 42,688,190, Central America is a part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently, these disasters have resulted in the loss of many lives. In the Pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west. Soon after Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish began to colonize the Americas, the seven states finally became independent autonomous states, beginning with Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, followed by El Salvador, then Panama, and finally Belize. Middle America is usually thought to comprise Mexico to the north of the 7 states of Central America as well as Colombia, usually the whole of the Caribbean to the north-east and sometimes the Guyanas are also included. According to one source, the term Central America was used as a synonym for Middle America as recently as 1962, in Brazil, Central America comprises all countries between Mexico and Colombia, including those in the Caribbean. Mexico, in whole or in part, is included by British people. For the people living in the 5 countries formerly part of the Federal Republic of Central America there is a distinction between the Spanish language terms América Central and Centroamérica, in the Pre-Columbian era, the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Most notable among these were the Mayans, who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the Aztecs, following Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish sent many expeditions to the region, and they began their conquest of Maya territory in 1523. Soon after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado commenced the conquest of northern Central America for the Spanish Empire. Beginning with his arrival in Soconusco in 1523, Alvarados forces systematically conquered and subjugated most of the major Maya kingdoms, including the Kiche, Tzutujil, Pipil, and the Kaqchikel. By 1528, the conquest of Guatemala was nearly complete, with only the Petén Basin remaining outside the Spanish sphere of influence, the last independent Maya kingdoms – the Kowoj and the Itza people – were finally defeated in 1697, as part of the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1538, Spain established the Real Audiencia of Panama, which had jurisdiction over all land from the Strait of Magellan to the Gulf of Fonseca. This entity was dissolved in 1543, and most of the territory within Central America then fell under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia Real de Guatemala. This area included the current territories of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, the president of the Audiencia, which had its seat in Antigua Guatemala, was the governor of the entire area

4.
History of Belize
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The History of Belize dates back thousands of years. The Maya civilization spread into the area of Belize between 1500 BC to 1200 BC and flourished until about 1000 AD. Several major archeological sites, including Cahal Pech, Caracol, Lamanai, Lubaantun, Altun Ha, the first recorded European settlement was established by shipwrecked English seamen in 1638. Over the next 150 years, more English settlements were established and this period also was marked by piracy, indiscriminate logging, sporadic attacks by natives, and neighboring Spanish settlements. Great Britain first sent an official to the area in the late 17th century and it became a crown colony in 1862. Subsequently, several changes were enacted to expand representative government. Full internal self-government under a system was granted in January 1964. The official name of the territory was changed from British Honduras to Belize in June 1973, many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination. Prior to about 2500 B. C. some hunting and foraging bands settled in farming villages, they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture, between about 2500 B. C. and 250 A. D. the basic institutions of Maya civilization emerged. The peak of this occurred during the classic period, which began around 250 A. D. The recorded history of the center and south is dominated by Caracol, North of the Maya Mountains, the inscriptional language at Lamanai was Yucatecan as of 625 CE. The last date recorded in Choltian within Belizean borders is 859 A. D. in Caracol, yucatec civilisation, in Lamanai, lasted longer. Farmers engaged in various types of agriculture, including labor-intensive irrigated and ridged-field systems and their products fed the civilizations craft specialists, merchants, warriors, and priest-astronomers, who coordinated agricultural and other seasonal activities with rituals in ceremonial centers. The Maya were skilled at making pottery, carving jade, knapping flint, the architecture of Maya civilization included temples and palatial residences organized in groups around plazas. These structures were built of cut stone, covered with stucco, stylized carvings and paintings, along with sculptured stelae and geometric patterns on buildings, constitute a highly developed style of art. Belize boasts important sites of the earliest Maya settlements, majestic ruins of the classic period, about five kilometers west of Orange Walk, is Cuello, a site from perhaps as early as 2,500 B. C. Jars, bowls, and other dishes found there are among the oldest pottery unearthed in present-day Mexico, cerros, a site on Chetumal Bay, was a flourishing trade and ceremonial center between about 300 B. C. and 100 A. D

5.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth

6.
New World
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The New World is one of the names used for the Earths Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term was coined by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the Americas were also referred to as the fourth part of the world. New World are meaningful in historical context and for the purpose of distinguishing the worlds major ecozones, and to classify plant and animal species that originated therein. One can speak of the New World in a context, e. g. when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus. For lack of alternatives, the term is still useful to those discussing issues that concern the Americas. The term New World is used in a context, when one speaks of Old World. Biological taxonomists often attach the New World label to groups of species that are exclusively in the Americas, to distinguish them from their counterparts in the Old World. New World monkeys, New World vultures, New World warblers, the label is also often used in agriculture. Common Old World crops, and domesticated animals did not exist in the Americas until they were introduced by contact in the 1490s. Other famous New World crops include the cashew, cocoa, rubber, sunflower, tobacco, and vanilla, there are rare instances of overlap, e. g. In wine terminology, New World has a different definition, Vespucci was finally convinced when he proceeded on his mapping expedition through 1501-02, covering the huge stretch of coast of eastern Brazil. But this opinion is false, and entirely opposed to the truth, Vespuccis letter was a publishing sensation in Europe, immediately reprinted in several other countries. The Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto had used the term un altro mundo to refer to sub-Saharan Africa, however, this was merely a literary flourish, not a suggestion of a new fourth part of the world. Cadamosto was quite aware sub-Saharan Africa was firmly part of the African continent, the Italian-born Spanish chronicler Peter Martyr dAnghiera often shares credit with Vespucci for designating the Americas as a new world. Peter Martyr used the term Orbe Novo in the title of his history of the discovery of the Americas as a whole, a year later, Peter Martyr again refers to the marvels of the New Globe and the Western hemisphere. Christopher Columbus touched the continent of South America in his 1498 third voyage, in another letter, Columbus refers to having reached a new heavens and world and that he had placed another world under the dominion of the Kings of Spain. The Vespucci passage above applied the New World label to merely the continental landmass of South America, although the proceedings of the Toro-Burgos conferences are missing, it is almost certain that Vespucci articulated his recent New World thesis to his fellow navigators there. In English usage the term New World was problematic and only accepted relatively late, while it became generally accepted after Vespucci that Columbuss discoveries were not Asia but a New World, the geographic relationship between the two continents was still unclear

7.
Treaty of Tordesillas
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This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde islands and the islands entered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, named in the treaty as Cipangu and Antilia. The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Castile, the treaty was signed by Spain,2 July 1494 and by Portugal,5 September 1494. Originals of both treaties are kept at the Archivo General de Indias in Spain and at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Portugal. This treaty would be observed fairly well by Spain and Portugal, despite considerable ignorance as to the geography of the New World, however and those countries generally ignored the treaty, particularly those that became Protestant after the Protestant Reformation. The Treaty of Tordesillas was intended to solve the dispute that had been created following the return of Christopher Columbus and his crew, on his way back to Spain he first reached Lisbon, in Portugal. There he asked for another meeting with King John II to show him the newly discovered lands, also, the Portuguese King stated that he was already making arrangements for a fleet to depart shortly and take possession of the new lands. After reading the letter the Catholic Monarchs knew they did not have any power in the Atlantic to match the Portuguese. The bull did not mention Portugal or its lands, so Portugal could not claim newly discovered lands even if they were east of the line. The Portuguese King John II was not pleased with that arrangement, feeling that it gave him far too little land—it prevented him from possessing India, by 1493 Portuguese explorers had reached the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese were unlikely to go to war over the islands encountered by Columbus, the treaty effectively countered the bulls of Alexander VI but was subsequently sanctioned by Pope Julius II by means of the bull Ea quae pro bono pacis of 24 January 1506. Even though the treaty was negotiated without consulting the Pope, a few sources call the line the Papal Line of Demarcation. Very little of the divided area had actually been seen by Europeans. Castile gained lands including most of the Americas, which in 1494 had little proven wealth, the easternmost part of current Brazil was granted to Portugal when in 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral landed there while he was en route to India. Some historians contend that the Portuguese already knew of the South American bulge that makes up most of Brazil before this time, the line was not strictly enforced—the Spanish did not resist the Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian. However, the Catholic Monarchs attempted to stop the Portuguese advance in Asia, by claiming the meridian line ran around the world, Portugal pushed back, seeking another papal pronouncement that limited the line of demarcation to the Atlantic. This was given by Pope Leo X, who was friendly toward Portugal and its discoveries, for a period between 1580 and 1640, the treaty was rendered meaningless, as the Spanish King was also King of Portugal. It was superseded by the 1750 Treaty of Madrid which granted Portugal control of the lands it occupied in South America, however, the latter treaty was immediately repudiated by the Catholic Monarch. The First Treaty of San Ildefonso settled the problem, with Spain acquiring territories east of the Uruguay River, the Treaty of Tordesillas only specified the line of demarcation in leagues from the Cape Verde Islands

8.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north

9.
Amerindians
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age

10.
Mosquito Coast
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The Mosquito Coast, also known as the Miskito Coast, historically comprised an area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras. It formed part of the Western Caribbean Zone and it was named after the local Miskito Amerindians and was long dominated by British interests. The Mosquito Coast was incorporated into Nicaragua in 1894, however, in 1960, the Mosquito Coast was generally defined as the domain of the Mosquito or Miskito Kingdom and expanded or contracted with that domain. During the nineteenth century, the question of the borders was a serious issue of international diplomacy between Britain, the United States, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Conflicting claims regarding both the extent and arguable nonexistence were pursued in diplomatic exchanges. The British and Miskito definition applied to the eastern seaboard of Nicaragua and even to La Mosquitia in Honduras. The Mosquito Coast in the part of the century came to be considered as the narrow strip of territory, fronting the Caribbean Sea. It stretched inland for a distance of 60 kilometers. In the north, its boundary skirted the Wawa River, in the west, it corresponded with the limit of the Nicaraguan highlands, in the south. Before the arrival of Europeans in the region, the area was divided into a number of small, egalitarian groups, possibly speaking languages related to Sumu. Columbus visited the coast briefly in his fourth voyage, detailed Spanish accounts of the region, however, only relate to the late 16th and early 17th centuries. According to their understanding of the geography, the region was divided between two Provinces Taguzgalpa and Tologalpa, the Spanish were unable to conquer this region during the 16th century and in the 17th century sought to reduce the region through missionary efforts. These included several attempts by Franciscans between 1604 and 1612, another one led by Fray Cristóbal Martinez in 1622, and a third one between 1667 and 1675, none of these efforts resulted in any lasting success. Because the Spanish failed to have significant influence in the region and this allowed the indigenous people to continue their traditional way of life and to receive visitors from other regions. English and Dutch privateers who preyed on Spanish ships soon found refuge in the Mosquito Coast, one of the kings of this polity visited England around 1638 at the behest of the Providence Island Company, and sealed an alliance with Great Britain. In subsequent years, the kingdom stood strongly against any Spanish incursions in their region, at the very least English and French privateers and pirates did visit there, taking in water and food. Providence Island, the main base and settlement, entered into regular correspondence with the coast during the decade of company occupation. The Providence Island Company sponsored the Miskitos Kings Son visit to England during the reign of Charles I, when his father died, this son returned home and placed his country under English protection

11.
Privateers
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A privateer was a private person or ship that engaged in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, a percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission. Since robbery under arms was common to trade, all merchant ships were already armed. During war, naval resources were auxiliary to operations on land so privateering was a way of subsidizing state power by mobilizing armed ships, the letter of marque of a privateer would typically limit activity to one particular ship, and specified officers. Typically, the owners or captain would be required to post a performance bond, in the United Kingdom, letters of marque were revoked for various offences. Some crews were treated as harshly as naval crews of the time, some crews were made up of professional merchant seamen, others of pirates, debtors, and convicts. Some privateers ended up becoming pirates, not just in the eyes of their enemies, william Kidd, for instance, began as a legitimate British privateer but was later hanged for piracy. The investors would arm the vessels and recruit large crews, much larger than a merchantman or a vessel would carry. Privateers generally cruised independently, but it was not unknown for them to form squadrons, a number of privateers were part of the English fleet that opposed the Spanish Armada in 1588. Privateers generally avoided encounters with warships, as such encounters would be at best unprofitable, for instance, in 1815 Chasseur encountered HMS St Lawrence, herself a former American privateer, mistaking her for a merchantman until too late, in this instance, however, the privateer prevailed. The United States used mixed squadrons of frigates and privateers in the American Revolutionary War, the practice dated to at least the 13th century but the word itself was coined sometime in the mid-17th century. England, and later the United Kingdom, used privateers to great effect and these privately owned merchant ships, licensed by the crown, could legitimately take vessels that were deemed pirates. The increase in competition for crews on armed merchant vessels and privateers was due, in a large part, because of the chance for a considerable payoff. Whereas a seaman who shipped on a vessel was paid a wage and provided with victuals. This proved to be a far more attractive prospect and privateering flourished as a result, during Queen Elizabeths reign, she encouraged the development of this supplementary navy. Over the course of her rule, she had allowed Anglo-Spanish relations to deteriorate to the point where one could argue that a war with the Spanish was inevitable. By using privateers, if the Spanish were to take offense at the plundering of their ships, some of the most famous privateers that later fought in the Anglo-Spanish War included the Sea Dogs. In the late 16th century, English ships cruised in the Caribbean and off the coast of Spain, at this early stage the idea of a regular navy was not present, so there is little to distinguish the activity of English privateers from regular naval warfare

12.
Treaty of Paris (1763)
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The signing of the treaty formally ended the Seven Years War, known as the French and Indian War in the North American theatre, and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe. Great Britain and France each returned much of the territory that they had captured during the war, additionally, Great Britain agreed to protect Roman Catholicism in the New World. The treaty did not involve Prussia and Austria as they signed a separate agreement, France had captured Minorca and British trading posts in Sumatra, while Spain had captured the border fortress of Almeida in Portugal, and Colonia del Sacramento in South America. In the treaty, most of territories were restored to their original owners. France and Spain restored all their conquests to Britain and Portugal, Britain restored Manila and Havana to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Gorée, and the Indian factories to France. In return, France ceded Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, France also ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to Britain, that is, the area from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. France had already secretly given Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in addition, while France regained its factories in India, France recognized British clients as the rulers of key Indian native states, and pledged not to send troops to Bengal. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in British Honduras, but retained a logwood-cutting colony there, Britain confirmed the right of its new subjects to practise Catholicism. In turn France gained the return of its colony, Guadeloupe. Voltaire had notoriously dismissed Canada as Quelques arpents de neige, A few acres of snow, the Treaty of Paris is frequently noted as the point at which France gave Louisiana to Spain. The transfer, however, occurred with the Treaty of Fontainebleau but was not publicly announced until 1764, the Treaty of Paris was to give Britain the east side of the Mississippi. New Orleans on the east side remained in French hands, the Mississippi River corridor in what is modern day Louisiana was to be reunited following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819. The 1763 treaty states in Article VII, While the war was all over the world. While the war had weakened France, it was still a European power, British Prime Minister Lord Bute wanted a peace that would not aggravate France towards a second war. This explains why Great Britain agreed to return so much while being in such a strong position, though the Protestant British feared Roman Catholics, Great Britain did not want to antagonize France through expulsion or forced conversion. Also, it did not want French settlers to leave Canada to strengthen other French settlements in North America and this explains Great Britains willingness to protect Roman Catholics living in Canada. Unlike Lord Bute, the French Foreign Minister the Duke of Choiseul expected a return to war, however, France needed peace to rebuild. French diplomats believed that without France to keep the Americans in check, in Canada, France wanted open emigration for those, such as nobility, who would not swear allegiance to the British Crown

13.
Treaty of Versailles (1783)
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The Peace of Paris of 1783 was the set of treaties which ended the American Revolutionary War. The British lost their Thirteen Colonies and the defeat marked the end of the First British Empire, the United States gained more than it expected, thanks to the award of western territory. The other Allies had mixed-to-poor results, France got its revenge over Britain after its defeat in the Seven Years War, but its material gains were minor and its financial losses huge. It was already in trouble and its borrowing to pay for the war used up all its credit. Historians link those disasters to the coming of the French Revolution, the Dutch did not gain anything of significant value at the end of the war. The Spanish had a result, they conquered British West Florida, but Gibraltar remained in British hands, in the long run. News of the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown reached Britain late in November 1781, Parliament immediately ordered an inquiry into the administration of the Royal Navy, to be held after the Christmas recess. The inquiry into Navy administration was followed by a Parliamentary vote on 20 February in which the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, narrowly escaped dismissal. Hours before yet another vote was due, on 20 March. Therefore, the decision was made to build on the no offensive war policy, second, for well over a year, informal discussions had been held with Henry Laurens, an American envoy captured on his way to Amsterdam. On 31 December 1781 Laurens had been released on parole, third, on hearing of Lord Norths resignation, Benjamin Franklin immediately wrote from Paris, making it clear that the Americans were ready to begin talking. However, Laurens, Franklin, and John Adams all made it clear to the British that America could not, under the 1778 alliance treaty, make peace without French agreement. For Britain that would be a tough decision—although the West Indies produced vast profits, the British negotiator sent to Paris was Richard Oswald, an old slave-trading partner of Henry Laurens, who had been one of his visitors in the Tower of London. His first talks with Franklin led to a proposal that Britain should hand over Canada to the Americans, a second British envoy, Thomas Grenville, was now sent to begin talks with the French government, based on this proposal. That did indeed violate the spirit of their 1778 treaty of alliance with America, another factor which gave added power to the Americans was the decision on 19 April of the Dutch Republic to recognise John Adams as the ambassador of an independent country. This led swiftly to the offer of a loan from the Netherlands. Regardless of this, the remainder of the negotiations would be carried out under Shelburnes devious leadership, by a contract dated 16 July 1782, America was to pay this money back on very favourable terms, with no payments due at all until three years after peace was finalised. The French too played their cards with some skill

14.
Logging
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Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. In forestry, the logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest. However, in usage, the term may be used to indicate a range of forestry or silviculture activities. Illegal logging refers to what in forestry might be called timber theft by the timber mafia and it can also refer to the harvesting, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. Clearcut logging is not necessarily considered a type of logging but a harvesting or silviculture method, in the forest products industry logging companies may be referred to as logging contractors, with the smaller, non-union crews referred to as gyppo loggers. Cutting trees with the highest value and leaving those with lower value and it is sometimes called selective logging, and confused with selection cutting, the practice of managing stands by harvesting a proportion of trees. Logging usually refers to above-ground forestry logging, submerged forests exist on land that has been flooded by damming to create reservoirs. Such trees are logged using underwater logging or by the lowering of the reservoirs in question, ootsa Lake and Williston Lake in British Columbia, Canada are notable examples where timber recovery has been needed to remove inundated forests. Clearcutting, or clearfelling, is a method of harvesting that removes all the standing trees in a selected area. Silviculture objectives for clearcutting, and a focus on forestry distinguish it from deforestation, other methods include shelterwood cutting, group selective, single selective, seed-tree cutting, patch cut, and retention cutting. The above operations can be carried out by different methods, of which the three are considered industrial methods, Trees are felled and then delimbed and topped at the stump. The log is then transported to the landing, where it is bucked and loaded on a truck and this leaves the slash in the cut area, where it must be further treated if wild land fires are of concern. This ability is due to the advancement in the style felling head that can be used, the trees are then delimbed, topped, and bucked at the landing. This method requires that slash be treated at the landing, in areas with access to cogeneration facilities, the slash can be chipped and used for the production of electricity or heat. Full-tree harvesting also refers to utilization of the tree including branches. Cut-to-length logging is the process of felling, delimbing, bucking, harvesters fell the tree, delimb, and buck it, and place the resulting logs in bunks to be brought to the landing by a skidder or forwarder. This method is available for trees up to 900 mm in diameter. Harvesters are employed effectively in level to steep terrain

15.
Battle of St. George's Caye
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The Battle of St. Georges Caye was a short military engagement that lasted from 3 to 10 September 1798, off the coast of what is now Belize. However, the name is reserved for the final battle that occurred on 10 September. The Spaniards had previously attempted to expel the Settlers on six occasions, September 10,1798 marked the final Spanish attempt to take over the area. Today, the Battle of St. Georges Caye is a national public, however, the symbolic meaning and significance of celebrating the 10th varies upon class and ethnic backgrounds. After the final two and a battle, ravaged by sickness, the Spaniards withdrew and the British declared themselves winners. The territory that is now Belize was under dispute from as early as the mid-1750s by Great Britain and Spain, although Spain never occupied Belize, she considered it part of her Central American territories, such as Mexico and Guatemala. The British had entered the territory as of 1638 to harvest logwood, Spain recognised this trade in the Treaty of Paris but did not undertake to draw boundaries, leading to further disputes. Indeed, from 1779 to 1782 the settlement was abandoned, its settlers, known as the Baymen, due to conflicts with the inhabitants Despard resigned, but by 1796 it was clear the issue would have to be settled. The British ships that were sent from Jamaica to assist the baymen were the Merlin, humphreys relates that in a 1796 visit to the area, Visitador Juan OSullivan claimed the British were encroaching on Spanish territory in Mexico by cutting near the Hondo. Upon his return to Spain, hostilities broke out between Great Britain and Spain as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the Spanish viewed the situation seriously and determined to remove the British. Colonists appealed to Jamaican Lieutenant Governor Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, but upon his arrival, Dundas noted panic in the settlement and the subsequent dispatching of slaves to cut logwood instead of preparing to defend the settlement. Balcarres then named Major Thomas Barrow Superintendent of the settlement, on 18 March, magistrates Thomas Potts, Thomas Graham and Marshall Bennett all asked Barrow whether there were any incoming messages from Jamaica. Impatient with the plans to defend the settlement, the Baymen called a meeting for 1 June 1797. At this meeting, the Baymen voted 65 to 51 to defend the settlement and this initial support wavered considerably between then and September 1798, as reports came in of the size of the Spanish fleet. Don Arturo ONeill Tirone, Yucatán Governor and Commander of the expedition, had secured, This estimate was reduced due to outbreaks of yellow fever. Nevertheless, it was enough to frighten the Baymen into posting lookouts near the boundaries of the territory, the Merlins captain in 1798 was John Moss, a strategist on the order of Barrow. By 18 July 1798 the fleet had reached Cozumel, leading the settlers to agree to arm their slaves, there were still some who were cautious and demanded evacuation, including Potts, but Balcarres ignored them and imposed martial law on 26 July. In addition there were 700 troops ready to attack by land

16.
Commonwealth of Nations
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The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the states as free. The symbol of free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, the other Commonwealth members have different heads of state,31 members are republics and five are monarchies with a different monarch. Member states have no obligation to one another. Instead, they are united by language, history, culture and their values of democracy, free speech, human rights. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth covers more than 29,958,050 km2, 20% of the worlds land area, and spans all six inhabited continents. She declared, So, it marks the beginning of that free association of independent states which is now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. As long ago as 1884, however, Lord Rosebery, while visiting Australia, had described the changing British Empire—as some of its colonies became more independent—as a Commonwealth of Nations. Conferences of British and colonial prime ministers occurred periodically from the first one in 1887, the Commonwealth developed from the imperial conferences. Newfoundland never did, as on 16 February 1934, with the consent of its parliament, Newfoundland later joined Canada as its 10th province in 1949. Australia and New Zealand ratified the Statute in 1942 and 1947 respectively, after World War II ended, the British Empire was gradually dismantled. Most of its components have become independent countries, whether Commonwealth realms or republics, there remain the 14 British overseas territories still held by the United Kingdom. In April 1949, following the London Declaration, the word British was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature, burma and Aden are the only states that were British colonies at the time of the war not to have joined the Commonwealth upon independence. Hoped for success was reinforced by such achievements as climbing Mount Everest in 1953, breaking the four minute mile in 1954, however, the humiliation of the Suez Crisis of 1956 badly hurt morale of Britain and the Commonwealth as a whole. More broadly, there was the loss of a role of the British Empire. That role was no longer militarily or financially feasible, as Britains withdrawal from Greece in 1947 painfully demonstrated, Britain itself was now just one part of the NATO military alliance in which the Commonwealth had no role apart from Canada

17.
Rio Hondo (Belize)
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The Hondo River, or Río Hondo, is a river of Central America, approximately 150 kilometres long, which flows in a northeasterly direction to discharge into Chetumal Bay on the Caribbean Sea. Most of the border between the nations of Mexico and Belize runs along its length. These tributaries join to form the Hondo River near the settlements of Blue Creek Village, on the Belizean side, the river continues its northeastern course with few other settlements along its length until reaching its outlet in Chetumal Bay. The city of Chetumal, capital of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, several archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization are located near the rivers course. The river is mentioned in a stanza of Belizes national anthem and our fathers, the Baymen, valiant and bold Drove back the invader, this heritage hold From proud Rio Hondo to old Sarstoon, Through coral isle, over blue lagoon

18.
Sarstoon River
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The Sarstoon River is a river in the Toledo District of Belize. It forms the southern boundary with Guatemala. The rivers sources are in neighbouring Guatemala and it flows through the Guatemalan departments of Alta Verapaz and Izabal into Belize and through Toledo to the Caribbean Sea

19.
Spanish Empire
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The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history. The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and was the first to be called the empire on which the sun never sets, the Spanish Empire originated during the Age of Discovery after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Following the Spanish–American War of 1898, Spain ceded its last colonies in the Caribbean and its last African colonies were granted independence or abandoned during Decolonisation of Africa finishing in 1976. The unity did not mean uniformity, nevertheless, some historians assert that Portugal was part of the Spanish monarchy at the time, while others draw a clear distinction between the Portuguese and Spanish empires. During the 15th century, Castile and Portugal became territorial and commercial rivals in the western Atlantic. The conquest was completed with the campaigns of the armies of the Crown of Castile between 1478 and 1496, when the islands of Gran Canaria, La Palma, and Tenerife were subjugated. The Portuguese tried in vain to keep secret their discovery of the Gold Coast in the Gulf of Guinea, chronicler Pulgar wrote that the fame of the treasures of Guinea spread around the ports of Andalusia in such way that everybody tried to go there. Worthless trinkets, Moorish textiles, and above all, shells from the Canary and Cape Verde islands were exchanged for gold, slaves, ivory and Guinea pepper. The Crown officially organized this trade with Guinea, every caravel had to get a government license, the treaty delimited the spheres of influence of the two countries, establishing the principle of the Mare clausum. It was confirmed in 1481 by the Pope Sixtus IV, in the papal bull Æterni regis, thus, the limitations imposed by the Alcáçovas treaty were overcome and a new and more balanced worlds division would be reached at Tordesillas between both emerging maritime powers. Seven months before the treaty of Alcaçovas, King John II of Aragon died, Ferdinand and Isabella drove the last Moorish king out of Granada in 1492 after a ten-year war. The Catholic Monarchs then negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west, Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus discoveries inaugurated the Spanish colonization of the Americas and these actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish colonies in all of the New World from north to south, as well as the easternmost parts of Asia. The treaty of Tordesillas was confirmed by Pope Julius II in the bull Ea quae pro bono pacis on 24 January 1506, Spains expansion and colonization was driven by economic influences, a yearning to improve national prestige, and a desire to spread Catholicism into the New World. The Catholic Monarchs had developed a strategy of marriages for their children in order to isolate their long-time enemy, the Spanish princes married the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg. Following the same strategy, the Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Catalan-Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars beginning in 1494. As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy, these conflicts became the center of Ferdinands foreign policy as king. Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France and this war was less of a success than the war against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan in its control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre

20.
British Honduras
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British Honduras was the name of a territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, after it became a British Crown colony in 1862. In 1964 it became a self-governing colony, the colony was renamed Belize in June 1973 and gained full independence in September 1981. British Honduras was the last continental possession of the United Kingdom in the Americas, for history prior to 1862 and following 1981, see History of Belize and History of Belize#Independence. The Treaty of Versailles between Britain and Spain gave the British rights to cut logwood between the Hondo and Belize rivers, the Convention of London expanded this concession to include the area between the Belize and Sibun rivers. As the British consolidated their settlement and pushed deeper into the interior in search of mahogany in the late 18th century, in the second half of the 19th century, however, a combination of events outside and inside the colony redefined the position of the Maya. During the Caste War in Yucatán, a struggle that halved the population of the area between 1847 and 1855, thousands of refugees fled to the British settlement. The Legislative Assembly had given large landowners in the colony firm titles to their vast estates in 1855, the Maya could only rent land or live on reservations. Nevertheless, most of the refugees were small farmers who, by 1857, were growing quantities of sugar, rice, corn. In 1857 the town of Corozal, then six years old, had 4,500 inhabitants, second in only to Belize Town. By 1862 about 1,000 Maya established themselves in ten villages in this area, one group of Maya, led by Marcos Canul, attacked a mahogany camp on the Bravo River in 1866, demanding ransom for their prisoners and rent for their land. A detachment of British troops sent to San Pedro was defeated by the Maya later that year. Early in 1867, more than 300 British troops marched into the Yalbac Hills and destroyed the Mayan villages, provision stores, the Maya returned, however, and in April 1870, Canul and his men marched into Corozal and occupied the town. Two years later, Canul and 150 men attacked the barracks at Orange Walk, after several hours of fighting, Canuls group retired. Canul, mortally wounded, died on 1 September 1872 and that battle was the last serious attack on the colony. In the 1880s and 1890s, Mopán and Kekchí Maya fled from forced labour in Guatemala and they settled in several villages in southern British Honduras, mainly around San Antonio in Toledo District. The Maya could use Crown lands set aside as reservations, under the policy of indirect rule, a system of elected alcaldes, adopted from Spanish local government, linked these Maya to the colonial administration. The Mopán and Kekchí Maya maintained their languages and a sense of identity. But in the north, the distinction between Maya and Spanish was increasingly blurred, as a Mestizo culture emerged

21.
Punta Gorda, Belize
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Punta Gorda, known locally as P. G. is the capital and largest town of Toledo District in southern Belize. Punta Gorda is the southernmost sizable town in the nation, with a population of about 5,000 people, although the town bears a Spanish name, its inhabitants are mostly Kriol/English-speaking, and are primarily of Garifuna, East Indian, Kriol, and Maya descent. Punta Gorda is a seaport and fishing town on the Caribbean Sea and it was a small fishing village before it was settled by a number of Garifuna emigrants from Honduras in 1823. The Garifuna refer to the town as Peini, the town is about fifteen feet above sea level. Punta Gorda is the point of transportation for people visiting the Toledo district. There is an airport which serves domestic flights from Maya Island Air. James Bus Line is based in Punta Gorda and offers a service to points north such as Independence, Dangriga, Belmopan. Water taxis offer daily crossings to Puerto Barrios and twice weekly service to Livingston in Guatemala, unlike the purpose-built water taxis plying the routes between Belize city and the northern cays, the services from Punta Gorda are provided by small, open boats. There are several hotels in Punta Gorda that draw tourists with their ocean views, Punta Gorda is also a gateway to several well-regarded jungle accommodations, including Cotton Tree Lodge, The Lodge at Big Falls, Belcampo Lodge, and Hickatee Cottages. Every May the town hosts the Toledo Cacao Festival, held over the Commonwealth Day holiday weekend, notable people from Punta Gorda include paranda musician Paul Nabor and Belizes Queen of Brukdown, Leela Vernon. St. Peter Claver Catholic parish, with an elementary school. The town is served by Punta Gorda Hospital, prairie View, Texas, United States Media related to Punta Gorda, Belize at Wikimedia Commons Punta Gorda, Belize travel guide from Wikivoyage

22.
Rafael Carrera
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José Rafael Carrera Turcios was the president of Guatemala from 1844 to 1848 and from 1851 until his death in 1865, after being appointed President for Life in 1854. This led to a rise of caudillos, a term refers to charismatic populist leaders among the indigenous people. Many regional and national caudillos were interested in power for their own gain, Carrera was an exception as he genuinely took the interests of Guatemalas Indian majority to heart. He led the revolt against the state government of Mariano Galvez in Guatemala. Carrera was born on 24 October 1814 in the Candelaria barrio of Guatemala City towards the end of the Spanish colonial period and he was of humble origin, a mestizo and illiterate. He first worked as a farmhand and he enlisted in the army during the civil war, which lasted from 1826 to 1829. In 1835, he left the army and moved to Mataquescuintla where he married Petrona García, in the 1830s, after undisciplined soldiers of the Federal Republic of Central America killed some of his relatives, Carrera pledged a vendetta against Federal president Francisco Morazáns government. By 1837, rural masses were voicing numerous grievances against the government of Guatemala. Inexperienced in republican politics, the leaders did not foresee the power of popular resistance. A cholera epidemic added to the frustration over grievances, led to panic, strongly supported by the Church, Carrera became de facto ruler of much of Guatemala and led a large uprising of Indians in the east and south of the country. The movement was strongly pro-Catholic and eager to restore many of the religious institutions and traditions that the liberals had abandoned. Morazán repeatedly drove Carreras forces out of cities and towns, for almost a decade, he was content being a military commander and enjoyed the respect of his followers. Under the leadership of Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol the conservatives aimed to regain their place as Guatemalas elite from which the liberals had expelled them. In 1838 the liberal forces of Morazán and José Francisco Barrundia invaded Guatemala and reached San Sur and they impaled his head on a pike as a warning to all followers of the Guatemalan caudillo. The Carrera forces had to hide in the mountains, the criollos of both parties celebrated until dawn that they finally had a criollo caudillo like Morazán, who was able to crush the peasant rebellion. Along the way, Morazán increased repression in eastern Guatemala, as punishment for helping Carrera, knowing that Morazán had gone to El Salvador, Carrera tried to take Salamá with the small force that remained, but was defeated, losing his brother Laureano in the combat. With just a few men left, he managed to escape, badly wounded, in September of that year, he attempted an assault on the capital of Guatemala, but the liberal general Carlos Salazar Castro defeated him in the fields of Villa Nueva and Carrera had to retreat. Knowing that Morazán was going to attack El Salvador, Francisco Ferrera gave arms and ammunition to Carrera, Salazar, in his nightshirt, vaulted roofs of neighboring houses and sought refuge, reaching the border disguised as a peasant

23.
Maya peoples
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The Maya people are a group of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. They inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, the pre-Columbian Maya population was approximately eight million. There were a seven million Maya living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, one of the largest groups of modern Maya can be found in Mexicos Yucatán State and the neighboring states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and in Belize. These peoples commonly identify themselves simply as Maya with no further ethnic subdivision and they speak the language which anthropologists term Yucatec Maya, but is identified by speakers and Yucatecos simply as Maya. Among Maya speakers, Spanish is commonly spoken as a second or first language, linguists refer to the Maya language as Yucatec or Yucatec Maya to distinguish it from other Mayan languages. This norm has often been misinterpreted to mean that the people are also called Yucatec Maya, that refers only to the language. Maya is one language in the Mayan language family, thus, to refer to Maya as Mayans would be similar to referring to Spanish people as Romantics because they speak a language belonging to the Romance language family. Confusion of the term Maya/Mayan as an ethnic label occurs because Maya women who use traditional dress identify by the ethnic term mestiza, the Yucatáns indigenous population was first exposed to Europeans after a party of Spanish shipwreck survivors came ashore in 1511. One of the sailors, Gonzalo Guerrero, is reported to have taken up with a woman and started a family. Later Spanish expeditions to the region were led by Córdoba in 1517, Grijalva in 1518, from 1528 to 1540, several attempts by Francisco Montejo to conquer the Yucatán failed. His son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, fared almost as badly when he first took over, while holding out at Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza was conquered by 1570, in 1542, the western Yucatán Peninsula also surrendered to him. Historically, the population in the half of the peninsula was less affected by. In the 21st century in the Yucatán Peninsula, between 750,000 and 1,200,000 people speak Mayan, however, three times more than that are of Maya origins, hold ancient Maya surnames, and do not speak Mayan languages as their first language. Matthew Restall, in his book The Maya Conquistador, mentions a series of letters sent to the King of Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries. The noble Maya families at that time signed documents to the Spanish Royal Family, surnames mentioned in letters are Pech, Camal, Xiu, Ucan, Canul, Cocom. A large 19th-century revolt by the native Maya people of Yucatán, for a period the Maya state of Chan Santa Cruz was recognized as an independent nation by the British Empire, particularly in terms of trading with British Honduras

24.
International Court of Justice
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The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations. Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the Court. The Courts workload covers a range of judicial activity. Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce Court rulings, however, such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the Council, which the United States used in the Nicaragua case. The election process is set out in Articles 4–19 of the ICJ statute, elections are staggered, with five judges elected every three years to ensure continuity within the court. Should a judge die in office, the practice has generally been to elect a judge in an election to complete the term. No two judges may be nationals of the same country, according to Article 9, the membership of the Court is supposed to represent the main forms of civilization and of the principal legal systems of the world. Essentially, that has meant common law, civil law and socialist law, the exception was China, which did not have a judge on the Court from 1967 to 1985 because it did not put forward a candidate. Judicial independence is dealt with specifically in Articles 16–18, judges of the ICJ are not able to hold any other post or act as counsel. A judge can be dismissed only by a vote of the other members of the Court. Despite these provisions, the independence of ICJ judges has been questioned, judges may deliver joint judgments or give their own separate opinions. Judges may also deliver separate dissenting opinions, Article 31 of the statute sets out a procedure whereby ad hoc judges sit on contentious cases before the Court. The system allows any party to a case if it otherwise does not have one of that partys nationals sitting on the Court to select one additional person to sit as a judge on that case only. It is thus possible that as many as seventeen judges may sit on one case, the system may seem strange when compared with domestic court processes, but its purpose is to encourage states to submit cases. Although this system does not sit well with the nature of the body. Ad hoc judges usually vote in favor of the state that appointed them, generally, the Court sits as full bench, but in the last fifteen years, it has on occasion sat as a chamber. Articles 26–29 of the statute allow the Court to form smaller chambers, usually 3 or 5 judges, Two types of chambers are contemplated by Article 26, firstly, chambers for special categories of cases, and second, the formation of ad hoc chambers to hear particular disputes. In 1993, a chamber was established, under Article 26 of the ICJ statute

25.
Self-determination
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The right of peoples to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law, binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter’s norms. The principle does not state how the decision is to be made, nor what the outcome should be, whether it be independence, federation, protection, neither does it state what the delimitation between peoples should be—nor what constitutes a people. There are conflicting definitions and legal criteria for determining which groups may legitimately claim the right to self-determination, National aspirations must be respected, people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. Self determination is not a phrase, it is an imperative principle of action. By extension the term self-determination has come to mean the free choice of ones own acts without external compulsion, during, and after, the Industrial Revolution many groups of people recognized their shared history, geography, language, and customs. Such groups often pursued independence and sovereignty over territory, but sometimes a different sense of autonomy has been pursued or achieved, the world possessed several traditional, continental empires such as the Ottoman, Russian, Austrian/Habsburg, and the Qing Empire. During the early 19th century, competition in Europe produced multiple wars, after this conflict, the British Empire became dominant and entered its imperial century, while nationalism became a powerful political ideology in Europe. Later, after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, New Imperialism was unleashed with France and later Germany establishing colonies in Asia, the Pacific, Japan also emerged as a new power. The Ottoman Empire, Austrian Empire, Russian Empire, Qing Empire, all ignored notions of self-determination for those governed. The French Revolution was motivated similarly and legitimatized the ideas of self-determination on that Old World continent, within the New World during the early 19th century, most of the nations of Spanish America achieved independence from Spain. The United States supported that status, as policy in the relative to European colonialism. Such support, however, never became official government policy, due to balancing of other national interests, meanwhile, in Europe itself there was a rise of nationalism, with nations such as Greece, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria seeking or winning their independence. Karl Marx supported such nationalism, believing it might be a condition to social reform. In 1914 Vladimir Lenin wrote, would be wrong to interpret the right to self-determination as meaning anything, woodrow Wilson revived Americas commitment to self-determination, at least for European states, during World War I. When the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in November 1917 and they also supported the right of all nations, including colonies, to self-determination. The 1918 Constitution of the Soviet Union acknowledged the right of secession for its constituent republics and this presented a challenge to Wilsons more limited demands. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 led to Russias exit from the war, however, this imposition of states where some nationalities were given power over nationalities who disliked and distrusted them eventually helped lead to World War II. Also Germany lost land after WWI, Northern Slesvig voted to return to Denmark after a referendum, the League of Nations was proposed as much as a means of consolidating these new states, as a path to peace

26.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua

27.
Central American Federation
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It existed from September 1821 to 1841, and was a republican democracy. It is also incorrectly referred to in English as the United States of Central America. The republic consisted of the states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua. Maps and borders hardly existed at the time so locations are only approximate, from 1838 to 1840 the federation descended into civil war, with conservatives fighting against liberals and separatists fighting to secede. From the 16th century through 1821, Central America, apart from Panama and that date is still marked as independence day by most Central American nations. Independence proved short-lived, as local law-and-order broke down, driven by regional rivalries, many localities refused to accept the newly formed federal powers in Guatemala—San Salvador, Comayagua, León, and Cartago were in open revolt. The ensuing anarchy prompted the land-owning wealthy and conservative class to advocate union with Mexico, on 25 January 1822 the Junta consultiva in Guatemala City voted for annexation. A few weeks later General Vicente Filísola, the envoy of Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of the First Mexican Empire arrived in Guatemala as the new ruler. The annexation was controversial, with some seeing the Mexican constitution with its abolition of slavery, Central American liberals in San Salvador objected to this and refused to accept Filísolas authority. The army was ordered to quell dissent, after Iturbide abdicated, Mexico became a republic and offered to the previously annexed Central American provinces the right to determine their own destiny. Filísola turned over his power to the hastily formed National Constituent Assembly, on July 1,1823 the Congress of Central America declared absolute independence from Spain, Mexico, and any other foreign nation, and established a republican system of government. The liberal-dominated Assembly elected Manuel José Arce as president but he turned against his own faction. San Salvador rose in revolt against federal authority, Honduras and Nicaragua joined the rebellion and Arce was deposed in 1829. The victors led by the Honduran Francisco Morazán took power and Morazán was proclaimed president in 1830, to appease liberal supporters, the capital was relocated from Guatemala City to San Salvador in 1831 but Morazáns hold on power was waning as conservatives regained control in the provinces. The Assembly in 1838 adjourned with the declaration that the provinces were free to rule themselves as the Federal Republic dissolved, in 1839 Morazán was exiled as rebels from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua entered San Salvador, evicting the governing institutions that held the region together. In practice, the federation faced insurmountable problems, and the union slid into war between 1838 and 1840. Its disintegration began when Nicaragua separated from the federation on November 5,1838, followed by Honduras, in reality, this merely legally acknowledged the process of disintegration that had already begun. The union effectively ended in 1840, by which four of its five states had declared independence

28.
Gloucestershire Regiment
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The Gloucestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army. Nicknamed The Glorious Glosters, the regiment carried more battle honours on their regimental colours than any other British Army line regiment. The back badge is unique in the British Army and was adopted by the 28th Regiment of Foot to commemorate their actions at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. The Gloucestershire Regiment traced its roots to Colonel Gibsons Regiment of Foot which was raised in 1694 in Portsmouth and first saw action in 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Having been commanded by a succession of colonels, the regiment was renamed in 1742 as the 28th Regiment of Foot, another predecessor, the 61st Regiment of Foot, was formed in 1758 when the British Army was expanded during the Seven Years War. In 1782 the British Army began linking foot regiments with counties for the purposes of recruitment, for the first time the county of Gloucestershire was associated with both the 28th and the 61st, which became known as the 28th Regiment of Foot and the 61st Regiment of Foot. In March 1801 the 28th formed part of the British expeditionary force landed at Aboukir Bay in Egypt to oppose Napoleons Army of the East. On 21 March, during the Battle of Alexandria, French cavalry broke through the British lines, formed up behind the 28th, still heavily engaged to their front, the order was given Rear Rank, 28th. Right About Face, and standing thus in two ranks, back to back, the regiment successfully defended itself, for this action the 28th was accorded the unique privilege of wearing the regimental number both on the front and the back of its head-dress. The 61st also deployed to Egypt and, although arriving too late to play a part, was, like the 28th, awarded the battle honour Egypt. During the 19th century relatively uneventful postings at home and abroad were punctuated with periods of active service, both the 28th and the 61st fought against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War. The 28th also participated in the defeat of Napoleon, being commended by the Duke of Wellington for gallantry in the Battle of Quatre Bras. The 28th, whose time in India was shorter and less eventful, was deployed to the Crimea, adding Alma, Inkerman. Another thread that would be woven into the story of the Gloucestershire Regiment concerns the civilian administered auxiliary forces that supported the army in times of need, in the mid-18th century county militias were raised for home defence and as a pool of reserves for the regular army. In 1795 both militias were granted the Royal prefix, in 1859 the raising of county-based volunteer rifle corps was authorised, leading to the formation of the 1st Gloucestershire Rifle Volunteers and the 2nd Gloucestershire Rifle Volunteers. As a result, in 1881 the 28th and the 61st regiments were amalgamated to form the Gloucestershire Regiment, the reforms also added the countys auxiliary forces to the establishment, and at its formation the regiment thus comprised two regular and four auxiliary battalions. The Gloucestershire Regiment inherited from the 28th the privilege of wearing the back badge. It was a privilege that the 2nd Battalion did not want, but it was made palatable to the former 61st by replacing the number 28 with the Sphinx, the 1st Battalion celebrated the bicentenary of the regiment at Malta in 1894

29.
Belize City
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Belize City is the largest city in Belize and was once the capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2010 census, Belize City has a population of 57,169 people in 16,162 households and it is located at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, which is a tributary of the Belize River. The Belize River empties into the Caribbean Sea 5 miles from Belize City on the Philip Goldson Highway on the coast of the Caribbean, the city is the countrys principal port and its financial and industrial hub. Several cruise ships drop anchor outside the port and are tendered by local citizens, the city was almost entirely destroyed in 1961 when Hurricane Hattie swept ashore on October 31. It was the capital of British Honduras until the government was moved to the new capital of Belmopan in 1970, Belize City was founded as Belize Town in 1638 by British lumber harvesters. It had been a small Maya city called Holzuz, Belize Town was ideal for the British as a central post because it was on the sea and a natural outlet for local rivers and creeks down which the British shipped logwood and mahogany. Belize Town also became the home of the thousands of African slaves brought in by the British to assist in the forest industry. It was the site for the 1798 Battle of St. Georges Caye, won by the British against would-be invaders. For this reason, historians say that the capital was the Colony. Belize Town slowly improved its infrastructure and has been the object of numerous infrastructural projects, the city has also been hit hard by Hurricane Richard and by the 2016 Hurricane Earl. Fires on Northside and Southside have burnt out great stretches of housing, the city is also susceptible to flooding problems in the rainy season, but timely repairs and a letup in the rain usually help. Belize City spreads out Mile 6 on the Western Highway and Mile 5 on the Northern Highway, politically, it is divided into ten constituencies, described below. Freetown, the westernmost constituency on Northside, is home to the Belama, Coral Grove, Buttonwood Bay, within the city proper it extends up to around the former Belize Technical College area. Caribbean Shores includes Kings Park, a suburb north and west of Freetown Road, West Landivar. Pickstock inhabits the banks of the Haulover Creek extending to Barrack Road, St. Johns Cathedral stands on the southern end of Albert Street. St. John’s is the oldest Anglican Church in Central America, the orange bricks came to Belize aboard British ships as ballast. Construction began in 1812, and the church was completed in 1820, St. John’s is the only Anglican cathedral in the world outside England where the crowning of kings took place. Fort George is perhaps the most colonial area in the City and contains Memorial Park, the Baron Bliss Grave and Baron Bliss Lighthouse, on the Southside, Lake Independence, Collet and Port Loyola are home to some of the citys poorest residents

30.
George Cadle Price
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George Cadle Price, PC, OCC, was a Belizean statesman who served twice as the head of government of Belize from 1961–84 and 1989–93. He served as First Minister and Premier under British rule until independence in 1981 and was the nations first prime minister after independence that year and he is considered to have been one of the principal architects of Belizean independence. Today he is referred to by many as the Father of the Nation, born in Belize City in what was then British Honduras, to William and Irene Price, he entered politics in 1947 with his election to the Belize City Council. In 1949, with the devaluation of the British Honduran dollar he and it was the start of the peaceful, constructive Belizean revolution. George Price received his education at Holy Redeemer Primary School. He survived the hurricane of 1931 which destroyed SJC at Loyola Park, under the Jesuits he was exposed to the teachings of Catholic social justice, in particular the encyclical Rerum novarum. Throughout his life Price remained a devout Roman Catholic and attended Mass daily, the war in Europe prevented him from completing his studies in Rome and, instead, George Price returned to Belize. He was hired by local businessman Robert Sidney Turton as his private secretary and he also rallied a few SJC graduates, some of them later members of the PUP, to contest elections in 1944 and 1947 for the local Town Board, being successful in 1947. Price also contributed to the Belize Billboard, then run by Philip Goldson, Price, upon the formation of the Peoples Committee in 1950, was named its Assistant Secretary, and in a famous speech later that year claimed that National Unity propelled the PCs actions. With the formation of the PUP, Prices stature rose and he ascended through the party ranks until he became Party Leader following a dispute in 1956. Elected to the newly created Legislative Assembly in 1954, he also served as mayor of Belize City from 1956 to 1962. In 1956, Price became party leader of the PUP, as First Minister, a post he held since 1961, he led the team which began negotiations over independence with Great Britain. He maintained that post as Premier in 1964, in 1981 Belize gained its independence, and Price served as the countrys first prime minister and foreign minister until 1984. The PUP was defeated in the elections by the United Democratic Party under Manuel Esquivel, Price continued to lead the PUP from outside the National Assembly while Florencio Marin became Leader of the Opposition. Price resumed the post of prime minister after successfully returning to the House in the 1989 election, serving until 1993, in October 1996 he announced his resignation as party leader, and on 10 November 1996 was formally succeeded by Said Musa. Price remained a member of the Belize House until the 2003 election, in September 2000, Price became the first person to receive Belizes highest honour, the Order of National Hero, for the prominent role he played in leading his country to independence. He has received honours in other Caribbean and Central American countries. In 1982, he was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Price died on 19 September 2011, at the age of 92

31.
Diplomatic relations
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Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states. International treaties are negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians. The scholarly discipline of diplomatics, dealing with the study of old documents, derives its name from the same source, but its modern meaning is quite distinct from the activity of diplomacy. Some of the earliest known records are the Amarna letters written between the pharaohs of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt and the Amurru rulers of Canaan during the 14th century BC. Following the Battle of Kadesh in c, Relations with the government of the Ottoman Empire were particularly important to Italian states. The maritime republics of Genoa and Venice depended less and less upon their nautical capabilities, interactions between various merchants, diplomats and clergy men hailing from the Italian and Ottoman empires helped inaugurate and create new forms of diplomacy and statecraft. Eventually the primary purpose of a diplomat, which was originally a negotiator and it became evident that all other sovereigns felt the need to accommodate themselves diplomatically, due to the emergence of the powerful political environment of the Ottoman Empire. One could come to the conclusion that the atmosphere of diplomacy within the modern period revolved around a foundation of conformity to Ottoman culture. One of the earliest realists in international relations theory was the 6th century BC military strategist Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War. However, a deal of diplomacy in establishing allies, bartering land, and signing peace treaties was necessary for each warring state. The treaty was renewed no less than nine times, but did not restrain some Xiongnu tuqi from raiding Han borders. The Koreans and Japanese during the Chinese Tang Dynasty looked to the Chinese capital of Changan as the hub of civilization, the Japanese sent frequent embassies to China in this period, although they halted these trips in 894 when the Tang seemed on the brink of collapse. After the devastating An Shi Rebellion from 755 to 763, the Tang Dynasty was in no position to reconquer Central Asia, after several conflicts with the Tibetan Empire spanning several different decades, the Tang finally made a truce and signed a peace treaty with them in 841. Both diplomats secured the borders of the Song Dynasty through knowledge of cartography. There was also a triad of warfare and diplomacy between these two states and the Tangut Western Xia Dynasty to the northwest of Song China. After warring with the Lý Dynasty of Vietnam from 1075 to 1077, Song, long before the Tang and Song dynasties, the Chinese had sent envoys into Central Asia, India, and Persia, starting with Zhang Qian in the 2nd century BC. Another notable event in Chinese diplomacy was the Chinese embassy mission of Zhou Daguan to the Khmer Empire of Cambodia in the 13th century, Chinese diplomacy was a necessity in the distinctive period of Chinese exploration. Since the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese also became heavily invested in sending diplomatic envoys abroad on missions into the Indian Ocean, to India, Persia, Arabia, East Africa

32.
Lyndon Johnson
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A Democrat from Texas, he previously served as a United States Representative from 1937 to 1949 and then as a United States Senator from 1949 to 1961. He spent six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader, and two more as Senate Majority Whip, Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1960 presidential election. Although unsuccessful, he was chosen by then-Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts to be his running mate and they went on to win a close election over Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Johnson was sworn in as Vice President on January 20,1961. Two years and ten months later, on November 22,1963 and he successfully ran for a full term in the 1964 election, winning by a landslide over Republican opponent Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. He is one of four people who have served as President, Vice President, Senator. Johnson was renowned for his personality and the Johnson treatment. Assisted in part by an economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during his administration. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Johnson escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted Johnson the power to use force in Southeast Asia without having to ask for an official declaration of war. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 16,000 advisors in non-combat roles in 1963 to 550,000 in early 1968, American casualties soared and the peace process bogged down. Growing unease with the war stimulated a large, angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U. S. and abroad. Johnson faced further troubles when summer riots broke out in most major cities after 1965, while he began his presidency with widespread approval, support for Johnson declined as the public became upset with both the war and the growing violence at home. In 1968, the Democratic Party factionalized as antiwar elements denounced Johnson, Republican Richard Nixon was elected to succeed him, as the New Deal coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years collapsed. After he left office in January 1969, Johnson returned to his Texas ranch, historians argue that Johnsons presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era. Johnson is ranked favorably by some historians because of his policies and the passage of many major laws, affecting civil rights, gun control, wilderness preservation. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27,1908, near Stonewall, Texas, in a farmhouse on the Pedernales River. Johnson had one brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and three sisters, Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia, the nearby small town of Johnson City, Texas, was named after LBJs cousin, James Polk Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Oglethorpe County, Georgia. Johnson had English, German, and Ulster Scots ancestry and he was maternally descended from pioneer Baptist clergyman George Washington Baines, who pastored eight churches in Texas, as well as others in Arkansas and Louisiana

33.
Aircraft carrier
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An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Aircraft carriers are expensive to build and are critical assets, there is no single definition of an aircraft carrier, and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers, Aircraft carriers may be classified according to the type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, former head of the Royal Navy, has said, To put it simply, as of April 2017, there are 37 active aircraft carriers in the world within twelve navies. The United States Navy has 10 large nuclear-powered fleet carriers, the largest carriers in the world, the Royal Navy of Great Britain is building two 280-m / 920-ft carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, and the Prince of Wales scheduled to go into service in 2020-2023. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds, by comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried, most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet, three nations currently operate carriers of this type, ten by the United States, and one each by France and Brazil for a total of twelve in service. Short take-off but arrested-recovery, these carriers are generally limited to carrying lighter fixed-wing aircraft with more limited payloads, currently, Russia, China, and India possess commissioned carriers of this type. Short take-off vertical-landing, limited to carrying STOVL aircraft and this type of aircraft carrier is currently in service with Italy. Some also count the nine US amphibious assault ships in their secondary light carrier role boosting the total to thirteen. Helicopter carrier, Helicopter carriers have an appearance to other aircraft carriers. Some are designed for addition of, or may include, a ski jump ramp allowing for STOVL operations or may have a ski jump installed before retirement of STOVL aircraft. In the past, some conventional carriers were converted and called commando carriers by the Royal Navy, some helicopter carriers with a resistant flight surface can operate STOVL jets. Currently the majority of carriers, but not all, are classified as amphibious assault ships. The US has nine of this type, France and Japan three, Australia two, the UK one, the Republic of Korea one and Spain one, the US and Spains amphibious assault ships operate STOVL jets in normal deployment. Supercarrier Fleet carrier Light aircraft carrier Escort carrier Several systems of identification symbol for aircraft carriers, two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay

34.
Jamaica
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Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island,10,990 square kilometres in area, lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area. Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494, Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish imported African slaves as labourers. Named Santiago, the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on slaves imported from Africa. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British imported Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations, the island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, Kingston is the countrys capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans predominately have African ancestry, with significant European, Chinese, Hakka, Indian, due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Sir Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as the head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2016, the indigenous people, the Taíno, called it Xaymaca in Arawakan, meaning the Land of Wood and Water or the Land of Springs. Colloquially Jamaicans refer to their island as the Rock. Slang names such as Jamrock, Jamdown, or briefly Ja, have derived from this, the Arawak and Taíno indigenous people, originating in South America, settled on the island between 4000 and 1000 BC. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1494, there were more than 200 villages ruled by caciques, the south coast of Jamaica was the most populated, especially around the area now known as Old Harbour. The Taino still inhabited Jamaica when the English took control of the island in 1655, the Jamaican National Heritage Trust is attempting to locate and document any evidence of the Taino/Arawak. Christopher Columbus claimed Jamaica for Spain after landing there in 1494 and his probable landing point was Dry Harbour, now called Discovery Bay, although there is some debate that it might have been St. Anns Bay. St. Anns Bay was named Saint Gloria by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land, the capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called St. Jago de la Vega, around 1534. Spanish Town has the oldest cathedral of the British colonies in the Caribbean, the Spanish were forcibly evicted by the English at Ocho Rios in St. Ann. In 1655, the English, led by Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, the English continued to import African slaves as labourers

35.
Nonaligned Movement
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The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members, all five leaders were prominent advocates of a middle course for states in the developing world between the Western and Eastern Blocs during the Cold War. The phrase itself was first used to represent the doctrine by Indian diplomat V. K. Krishna Menon in 1953, the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations members and contain 55% of the world population. Membership is particularly concentrated in countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World, members have at times included the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Argentina, Zaire, Cyprus, and Malta. Although many of the Non-Aligned Movements members were quite closely aligned with one or another of the superpowers. Some members were involved in conflicts with other members. The movement fractured from its own internal contradictions when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, although the Soviet allies supported the invasion, other members of the movement condemned it. Because the Non-Aligned Movement was formed as an attempt to thwart the Cold War, the successor states of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have expressed little interest in membership, though Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have observer status. In 2004, Malta and Cyprus ceased to be members and joined the European Union, belarus is the only member of the Movement in Europe. Azerbaijan and Fiji are the most recent entrants, joining in 2011, the applications of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Costa Rica were rejected in 1995 and 1998, respectively. The 16th NAM summit took place in Tehran, Iran, from 26 to 31 August 2012, according to Mehr News Agency, representatives from over 150 countries were scheduled to attend. Attendance at the highest level includes 27 presidents,2 kings, at the summit, Iran took over from Egypt as Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement for the period 2012 to 2015. The founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement were, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt and their actions were known as The Initiative of Five. The term non-alignment was established in 1953 at the United Nations, Nehru used the phrase in a 1954 speech in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In this speech, Nehru described the five pillars to be used as a guide for Sino-Indian relations called Panchsheel, the five principles were, Mutual respect for each others territorial integrity and sovereignty. The term non-aligned movement appears first in the conference in 1976. At the Lusaka Conference in September 1970, the member nations added as aims of the movement the peaceful resolution of disputes, another added aim was opposition to stationing of military bases in foreign countries. The movement stems from a not to be aligned within a geopolitical/military structure and therefore itself does not have a very strict organizational structure

36.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital

37.
Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Republic of China, and the United States—serve as the bodys five permanent members. These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General, the Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The bodys presidency rotates monthly among its members, Security Council resolutions are typically enforced by UN peacekeepers, military forces voluntarily provided by member states and funded independently of the main UN budget. As of 2016,103,510 peacekeeping soldiers and 16,471 civilians are deployed on 16 peacekeeping operations and 1 special political mission. Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between the nations, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. The most contentious issue at Dumbarton and in successive talks proved to be the rights of permanent members. At the conference, H. V. Evatt of the Australian delegation pushed to further restrict the power of Security Council permanent members. Due to the fear that rejecting the strong veto would cause the conferences failure, the UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. On 17 January 1946, the Security Council met for the first time at Church House, Westminster, in London, United Kingdom. The Security Council was largely paralysed in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their allies, and the Council generally was only able to intervene in unrelated conflicts. Cold War divisions also paralysed the Security Councils Military Staff Committee, the committee continued to exist on paper but largely abandoned its work in the mid-1950s. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its budget for peacekeeping. After the Cold War, the UN saw an expansion in its peacekeeping duties. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, undersecretary-General Brian Urquhart later described the hopes raised by these successes as a false renaissance for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide in the face of Security Council indecision, in the late 1990s, UN-authorised international interventions took a wider variety of forms

38.
Omar Torrijos
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Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera, more commonly known as Omar Torrijos, was the Commander of the Panamanian and National Guard and the de facto dictator of Panama from 1968 to 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, but instead held titles including Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution, Torrijos took power in a coup détat and instituted a number of social reforms and his regime was considered progressive. Torrijos is best known for negotiating the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties that eventually gave Panama full sovereignty over the Panama Canal. The two treaties guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the Panama Canal after 1999, ending the control of the canal that the U. S. had exercised since 1903. On December 31,1999, the phase of the treaty. His son Martín Torrijos was elected president and served from 2004 to 2009, Torrijos was born in Santiago in the province of Veraguas, the sixth of eleven children. His father, José Maria Torrijos, was originally from Colombia and he was educated at the local Juan Demóstenes Arosemena School and, at eighteen, won a scholarship to the military academy in San Salvador. He graduated with a commission as a second lieutenant and he joined the Panamanian army, the National Guard, in 1952. He was promoted to captain in 1956 then to major in 1960 and he took a cadet course at the School of the Americas in 1965. He became the Executive Secretary of the National Guard in 1966 and he had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel by 1966. Due to accusations of his involvement in election frauds, Torrijos was ordered to El Salvador in 1968 as a military attaché, although a two-man junta was appointed, Martinez and Torrijos were the true leaders from the beginning. Soon after the coup, Torrijos was promoted to full colonel and they barred all political activity and shut down the legislature. In 1972, the regime held an election of an Assembly of Community Representatives. The new assembly approved a new Constitution and elected Demetrio Lakas as president, however, the new document made Torrijos the actual head of government, with near-absolute powers for six years. He opened many schools and created new job opportunities for less fortunate. Some say he spent his weekends giving a thousand dollars to random people. The reforms were accompanied by a public works program, financed by foreign banks. In 1978, he stepped down as head of the government and he also restored some civil liberties, U. S. President Jimmy Carter had told him that the Senate would never approve the Canal treaties unless Torrijos made some effort to liberalize his rule

39.
Panama
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Panama, officially called the Republic of Panama, is a country usually considered to be entirely in North America or Central America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, the capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half of the countrys 4.1 million people. Panama was inhabited by indigenous tribes prior to settlement by the Spanish in the 16th century. Panama broke away from Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, when Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined, eventually becoming the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, in 1977 an agreement was signed for the total transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the 20th century, which culminated on 31 December 1999. Revenue from canal tolls continues to represent a significant portion of Panamas GDP, although commerce, banking, in 2015 Panama ranked 60th in the world in terms of the Human Development Index. Since 2010, Panama remains the second most competitive economy in Latin America, covering around 40 percent of its land area, Panamas jungles are home to an abundance of tropical plants and animals – some of them to be found nowhere else on the planet. There are several theories about the origin of the name Panama, some believe that the country was named after a commonly found species of tree. Others believe that the first settlers arrived in Panama in August, when butterflies abound, the best-known version is that a fishing village and its nearby beach bore the name Panamá, which meant an abundance of fish. Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán, while exploring the Pacific side in 1515, in 1517 Don Gaspar De Espinosa, a Spanish lieutenant, decided to settle a post there. In 1519 Pedrarias Dávila decided to establish the Empires Pacific city in this site, the new settlement replaced Santa María La Antigua del Darién, which had lost its function within the Crowns global plan after the beginning of the Spanish exploitation of the riches in the Pacific. Blending all of the above together, Panamanians believe in general that the word Panama means abundance of fish and this is the official definition given in social studies textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education in Panama. However, others believe the word Panama comes from the Kuna word bannaba which means distant or far away, at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the known inhabitants of Panama included the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes. These people have disappeared, as they had no immunity from European infectious diseases. The earliest discovered artifacts of indigenous peoples in Panama include Paleo-Indian projectile points, later central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making in the Americas, for example the cultures at Monagrillo, which date back to 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations best known through their spectacular burials at the Monagrillo archaeological site, the monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles site are also important traces of these ancient isthmian cultures. Before Europeans arrived Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, the largest group were the Cueva. The size of the population of the isthmus at the time of European colonization is uncertain

40.
Sandinista
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The Sandinista National Liberation Front is now a democratic socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish, the party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s. The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981, a militia, known as the Contras, was formed in 1981 to overthrow the Sandinista government and was funded and trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency. In 1984 elections were held but were boycotted by opposition parties. The FSLN won the majority of the votes, and those who opposed the Sandinistas won approximately a third of the seats, the civil war between the Contras and the government continued until 1989. The FSLN remains one of Nicaraguas two leading parties, the FSLN often polls in opposition to the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, or PLC. Ortega and the FSLN were re-elected again in the election of November 2011. The Sandinistas took their name from Augusto César Sandino, the leader of Nicaraguas nationalist rebellion against the US occupation of the country during the early 20th century. The FSLN originated in the milieu of various organizations, youth and student groups in the late 1950s. The University of Léon, and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in Managua were two of the centers of activity. Inspired by the Revolution and the FLN in Algeria, the FSLN itself was founded in 1961 by Carlos Fonseca, Silvio Mayorga, Tomás Borge, only Tomás Borge lived long enough to see the Sandinista victory in 1979. The term Sandinista, was added two years later, establishing continuity with Sandinos movement, and using his legacy in order to develop the movements ideology and strategy. By the early 1970s, the FSLN was launching limited military initiatives, on December 23,1972, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake leveled the capital city, Managua. The earthquake killed 10,000 of the citys 400,000 residents, about 80% of Managuas commercial buildings were destroyed. The president gave reconstruction contracts preferentially to family and friends, thereby profiting from the quake, by some estimates, his personal wealth rose to US$400 million in 1974. The siege was carefully timed to take place after the departure of the US ambassador from the gathering, at 10,50 pm, a group of 15 young guerrillas and their commanders, Pomares and Contreras, entered the house. They killed the Minister, who tried to shoot them, during the takeover, the guerrillas received US$2 million ransom, and had their official communiqué read over the radio and printed in the newspaper La Prensa

41.
People's United Party
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The Peoples United Party is one of two major political parties in Belize. It is currently the opposition party with 12 of 31 seats in the House of Representatives. It is a centre-left Christian democratic party, the party leader is Johnny Briceño, who currently serves as Belizes Leader of the Opposition. The PUP was founded in 1950 as a party while the country was ruled by the United Kingdom as British Honduras. Under George Cadle Price the PUP played a role in negotiating Belizes self-government in 1964. The PUP dominated local British Honduran and later Belizean politics from the mid-1950s until 1984, the UDP has been the partys main opposition since the early 1970s. Under Prices leadership, the PUP returned to power in 1989 but was defeated by the UDP again in 1993, after Prices retirement in 1996, the PUP won a landslide victory in 1998 under the leadership of Said Musa. The PUP won 22 of the 29 seats in the House of Representatives in 2003 and it subsequently held 21 seats after losing one to the UDP in a by-election in October 2003 after the death of one of its House members. After nearly 10 years in power under Musa the PUP decisively lost the February 2008 election to the UDP, the party remains in opposition after the 2012 election, in which it was narrowly defeated by the UDP. Among the Unions leaders were Clifford Betson, Antonio Soberanis, Henry Middleton, on December 31,1949, an incident occurred that would force them to act. On this date, a Saturday, the Governor devalued the Belize dollar after previously insisting he would not do so, an ad hoc committee, the Peoples Committee, was formed in January 1950 and began to speak out against this unwelcome act in particular and colonialism in general. A wave of anti-British and anti-colonial sentiment struck British Honduras that had never before been seen, the PC found that almost overnight it had become the salvation of the people. Belizeans rapidly accepted the new partys statements against colonialism and exploitation of the masses, on February 12,1950, a crowd of 10,000 marched to Government House in Belize City and proceeded to stone the houses of supposed pro-British elements. A meeting at the Battlefield Park in central Belize City was teargassed by police, and it was the first time that Belizeans had spoken so forcefully against British colonial policy and on a national level, featuring men and women. By April, the PC/PUP had infiltrated the General Workers Union, by September 1950, an overworked PC was forced to admit that it had overreached itself and that the work of enlightening British Hondurans was the vein of a political party. Its members agreed unanimously to the dissolving of the PC and the birth of the PUP on September 29,1950, a draft constitutional report prepared to examine Belizes readiness for development appeared in April 1951. It argued that the British system allowed Belizeans to the fruits of their labours and its views reflected those of the middle class of merchants and colonial supporters who saw no reason for change. The colonialists also sought to support, and created a National Party in August 1951 to oppose the PUP

Belize
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Belize, formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala and its mainland is about 290 km long and 110 km wide. Belize has an area of 22,800 square kilometres and a population of 368,310 and it has the lowest population density

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"Caana" at Caracol

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Flag

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"El Castillo" at Xunantunich

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An excerpt from the 1898 Gazette that declared September 10 an official holiday, part of the efforts of the Centennial Committee

Guatemala
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With an estimated population of around 15.8 million, it is the most populated state in Central America. Guatemala is a democracy, its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción. The territory of modern Guatemala once formed the core of the Maya civilization, most of the country was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century, becom

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Tikal Mayan ruins.

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Flag

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The Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado led the initial Spanish efforts to conquer Guatemala.

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Criollos rejoice upon learning about the declaration of independence from Spain on September 15, 1821.

Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cos

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Central America, 1798

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Central America

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El Chorreron in El Salvador

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One of the hanging bridges of the skywalk at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Monteverde, Costa Rica disappearing into the clouds

History of Belize
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The History of Belize dates back thousands of years. The Maya civilization spread into the area of Belize between 1500 BC to 1200 BC and flourished until about 1000 AD. Several major archeological sites, including Cahal Pech, Caracol, Lamanai, Lubaantun, Altun Ha, the first recorded European settlement was established by shipwrecked English seamen

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A Mayan temple at Altun Ha.

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The extent of the Mayan civilization.

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Christopher Columbus traveled to the Gulf of Honduras during his fourth voyage in 1502.

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Maya fisherwomen in British Honduras, beginning of the 20th century

Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by t

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Lady of Elche

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Flag

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Altamira Cave paintings, in Cantabria.

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Celtic castro in A Guarda, Galicia.

New World
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The New World is one of the names used for the Earths Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term was coined by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the Americas were also referred to as the fourth part of the world. New World are meaningful in historical context and for the purpose of distinguishing the worlds major ecozones, and to c

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Sebastian Münster 's map of the New World, first published in 1540

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Allegory of the New World: Amerigo Vespucci awakens the sleeping Americas

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The World Map by Diogo Ribeiro (1529) labels the Americas as MUNDUS NOVUS. It traces most of South America and the east coast of North America.

Treaty of Tordesillas
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This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde islands and the islands entered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, named in the treaty as Cipangu and Antilia. The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Castile, the treaty was signed by Spain,2 July 1494 and by Portugal,5 September 1494. O

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Front page of the Portuguese-owned treaty

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Early Tordesillas lines in South America (1495–1545)

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Dutch map of the Moluccas (north is at right)

Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted borde

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Citânia de Briteiros, in the Minho Province, is the best preserved Iron Age and Castro culture site in Portugal.

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Flag

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The Roman Temple of Évora, in the Alentejo, is a symbol of Lusitania, Roman rule in Portugal.

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Monument in Porto to Vimara Peres, first ruler of the County of Portugal

Amerindians
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, w

Mosquito Coast
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The Mosquito Coast, also known as the Miskito Coast, historically comprised an area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras. It formed part of the Western Caribbean Zone and it was named after the local Miskito Amerindians and was long dominated by British interests. The Mosquito Coast was incorporated into Nicaragua in 1894,

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The Wanks or Coco river, in the northern limit of the Mosquito Kingdom.

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Flag

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Dwellings in Bluefields in 1845

Privateers
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A privateer was a private person or ship that engaged in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, a percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission. Since robbery under arms was common to trade, all merchant ships were already armed. During war, naval resources w

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East Indiaman Kent battling Confiance, a privateer vessel commanded by French corsair Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Ambroise Louis Garneray.

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Boarding of the Triton (a British East Indiaman) by the French corsair Hasard.

Treaty of Paris (1763)
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The signing of the treaty formally ended the Seven Years War, known as the French and Indian War in the North American theatre, and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe. Great Britain and France each returned much of the territory that they had captured during the war, additionally, Great Britain agreed to protect Roma

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"A new map of North America" - produced following the Treaty of Paris

Treaty of Versailles (1783)
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The Peace of Paris of 1783 was the set of treaties which ended the American Revolutionary War. The British lost their Thirteen Colonies and the defeat marked the end of the First British Empire, the United States gained more than it expected, thanks to the award of western territory. The other Allies had mixed-to-poor results, France got its reveng

1.
The Spanish American colonies at their maximum extent, after the Peace of Paris, 1783

Logging
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Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. In forestry, the logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest. However, in usage, the term may be used to indicate a range of forestry or silviculture

4.
The Washington Iron Works Skidder in Nuniong is the only one of its kind in Australia, with donkey engine, spars and cables still rigged for work.

Battle of St. George's Caye
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The Battle of St. Georges Caye was a short military engagement that lasted from 3 to 10 September 1798, off the coast of what is now Belize. However, the name is reserved for the final battle that occurred on 10 September. The Spaniards had previously attempted to expel the Settlers on six occasions, September 10,1798 marked the final Spanish attem

1.
Map St. George's Caye in 1764

Commonwealth of Nations
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The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constitu

Rio Hondo (Belize)
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The Hondo River, or Río Hondo, is a river of Central America, approximately 150 kilometres long, which flows in a northeasterly direction to discharge into Chetumal Bay on the Caribbean Sea. Most of the border between the nations of Mexico and Belize runs along its length. These tributaries join to form the Hondo River near the settlements of Blue

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The Rio Hondo, border between Mexico and Belize

Sarstoon River
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The Sarstoon River is a river in the Toledo District of Belize. It forms the southern boundary with Guatemala. The rivers sources are in neighbouring Guatemala and it flows through the Guatemalan departments of Alta Verapaz and Izabal into Belize and through Toledo to the Caribbean Sea

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Sarstoon River (Río Sarstún)

Spanish Empire
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The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history. The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and was the first to be called the empire on which the sun never sets, the Spanish Empire originated during the Age of Discovery after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Following the Spanish–American War of 1898, Spain ce

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Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs (The return of Columbus to Spain).

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Flag

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The death of French general Gaston de Foix at the Battle of Ravenna (1512).

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Upon the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, the lordship of the Spanish Indies became Kingdoms of the Indies.

British Honduras
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British Honduras was the name of a territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, after it became a British Crown colony in 1862. In 1964 it became a self-governing colony, the colony was renamed Belize in June 1973 and gained full independence in September 1981. British Honduras was the last continental possession of the United K

1.
Destruction from the 1931 Belize hurricane

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Flag

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1965 map of British Honduras

Punta Gorda, Belize
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Punta Gorda, known locally as P. G. is the capital and largest town of Toledo District in southern Belize. Punta Gorda is the southernmost sizable town in the nation, with a population of about 5,000 people, although the town bears a Spanish name, its inhabitants are mostly Kriol/English-speaking, and are primarily of Garifuna, East Indian, Kriol,

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Punta Gorda Town Square

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Punta Gorda town market

Rafael Carrera
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José Rafael Carrera Turcios was the president of Guatemala from 1844 to 1848 and from 1851 until his death in 1865, after being appointed President for Life in 1854. This led to a rise of caudillos, a term refers to charismatic populist leaders among the indigenous people. Many regional and national caudillos were interested in power for their own

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His Excellency Rafael Carrera y Turcios

3.
Signature

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State Coat of Los Altos, carved in stone on the grave of heroes in the Cemetery of Quetzaltenango

Maya peoples
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The Maya people are a group of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. They inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, the pre-Columbian Maya population was approximately eight million. There were a seven million Maya living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salv

International Court of Justice
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The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations. Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document cons

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Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, seat of the ICJ

2.
International Court of Justice

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Public hearing at the ICJ.

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Audience of the "Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo"

Self-determination
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The right of peoples to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law, binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter’s norms. The principle does not state how the decision is to be made, nor what the outcome should be, whether it be independence, federation, protection, neither does

1.
A republican mural in Belfast showing solidarity with the Basque nationalism.

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Southern Sudanese expressed joy and jubilation on their day of independence, July 9, 2011, from Sudan.

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Donetsk status referendum organized by separatists in Ukraine. A line to enter a polling place, 11 May 2014

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A republican mural in Belfast showing solidarity with Palestine

Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island

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Cayo de Agua in Los Roques archipelago, Venezuela.

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Caribbean

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Puerto Rico 's south shore, from the mountains of Jayuya

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Puerto Cruz beach in Margarita Island, Venezuela

Central American Federation
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It existed from September 1821 to 1841, and was a republican democracy. It is also incorrectly referred to in English as the United States of Central America. The republic consisted of the states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua. Maps and borders hardly existed at the time so locations are only approximate, from 1838 to 1840 the feder

Gloucestershire Regiment
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The Gloucestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army. Nicknamed The Glorious Glosters, the regiment carried more battle honours on their regimental colours than any other British Army line regiment. The back badge is unique in the British Army and was adopted by the 28th Regiment of Foot to commemorate their actions at the

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Cap badge (left) and back badge (right) of the Gloucestershire Regiment

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The regiment's colours in Gloucester Cathedral

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James Power Carne

Belize City
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Belize City is the largest city in Belize and was once the capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2010 census, Belize City has a population of 57,169 people in 16,162 households and it is located at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, which is a tributary of the Belize River. The Belize River empties into the Caribbean Sea 5 miles fr

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Left to right from top: St. John's Cathedral, the Government House, the CARICOM Flag Monument, the Bliss Institute, an Aerial of Belize City, Princess Hotel and Casino, the Central Bank of Belize, High Court Building and the Swing Bridge

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Panoramic view of Belize City, c. 1914

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The Swing Bridge in Belize City is the only functioning, manually operated swing bridge in the world.

George Cadle Price
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George Cadle Price, PC, OCC, was a Belizean statesman who served twice as the head of government of Belize from 1961–84 and 1989–93. He served as First Minister and Premier under British rule until independence in 1981 and was the nations first prime minister after independence that year and he is considered to have been one of the principal archit

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Price in 1976

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Price and a Peace Corps volunteer, 1976

Diplomatic relations
–
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states. International treaties are negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians. The scholarly discipline of diplomatics, dealing with the study of old documents, derives its name from the same source, but its modern meaning is quite dist

1.
The United Nations, with its headquarters in New York City, is the largest international diplomatic organization.

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The First Geneva Convention (1864). Geneva (Switzerland) is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world.

3.
Portraits of Periodical Offering, a 6th-century Chinese painting portraying various emissaries; ambassadors depicted in the painting ranging from those of Hephthalites, Persia to Langkasuka, Baekje (part of the modern Korea), Qiuci, and Wo (Japan).

Lyndon Johnson
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A Democrat from Texas, he previously served as a United States Representative from 1937 to 1949 and then as a United States Senator from 1949 to 1961. He spent six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader, and two more as Senate Majority Whip, Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1960 presidential election. Althoug

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Johnson in 1964

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Lyndon Johnson with his trademark cowboy hat—age seven

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Johnson's boss, U.S. Rep. Richard Kleberg

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LCDR Johnson, March 1942

Aircraft carrier
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An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Aircraf

4.
USS Enterprise a supercarrier of the US Navy (left), sails alongside Charles de Gaulle, a fleet carrier of the French Navy (right) both of which have the CATOBAR configuration.

Jamaica
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Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island,10,990 square kilometres in area, lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area. Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island cam

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Henry Morgan was a famous Caribbean pirate and privateer; he had first come to the West Indies as an indentured servant, like most of the early English colonists.

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Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to Jamaica in 2008.

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Inside the Jamaican Parliament.

Nonaligned Movement
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The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members, all five leaders were prominent advocates of a middle course for states in the developing world between the Western and Eastern Blocs during the Cold War. The phrase itself was first used to rep

1.
Logo of the Sharm El Sheikh Summit, 2009.

2.
Member countries

Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the

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Hatuey, an early Taíno chief of Cuba.

2.
Flag

3.
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, conquistador of Cuba.

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Slaves in Cuba unloading ice from Maine, c. 1832.

Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Franc

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UN Security Council Chamber in New York City

2.
United Nations Security Council

3.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945

4.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell holds a model vial of anthrax while giving a presentation to the Security Council in February 2003.

Omar Torrijos
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Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera, more commonly known as Omar Torrijos, was the Commander of the Panamanian and National Guard and the de facto dictator of Panama from 1968 to 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, but instead held titles including Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution, Torrijos took power in a coup détat an

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Maximum Leader Omar Torrijos

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Omar Torrijos (right) with farmers in the Panamanian countryside. The Torrijos government was well known for its policies of land redistribution.

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President Carter shakes hands with General Torrijos of Panama after signing the Panama Canal Treaty.

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Omar Torrijos Mausoleum in Amador, Panama City, in the former Canal Zone.

Panama
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Panama, officially called the Republic of Panama, is a country usually considered to be entirely in North America or Central America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, the capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half of the countrys 4.1 mil

1.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a recognized and popular figure of Panamanian history

2.
Flag

3.
"New Caledonia", the ill-fated Scottish Darien scheme colony in the Bay of Caledonia, west of the Gulf of Darien

4.
Santo Domingo Church

Sandinista
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The Sandinista National Liberation Front is now a democratic socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish, the party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s. The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Deb

4.
US Marines with the captured flag of Augusto César Sandino, Nicaragua, 1932

People's United Party
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The Peoples United Party is one of two major political parties in Belize. It is currently the opposition party with 12 of 31 seats in the House of Representatives. It is a centre-left Christian democratic party, the party leader is Johnny Briceño, who currently serves as Belizes Leader of the Opposition. The PUP was founded in 1950 as a party while

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Clockwise from top left: Smithsonian Institution Building, Rock Creek Park, National Mall (including the Lincoln Memorial in the foreground), Howard Theatre and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

2.
Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the retrocession

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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865 assassination of President Lincoln

4.
Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool during the 1963 March on Washington